Case Number 12313

CIVIC DUTY

The Charge

The war on terror just came home.

Opening Statement

The paranoid thriller usually involves some complex government conspiracy, a
huge cast of characters, and grand, eye catching locations; not so with Civic
Duty, an intimate tale which mostly confines its four main characters to two
apartments. Does it maintain the inherent tension of its topical premise?

Facts of the Case

Recently unemployed, Terry Allen (Peter Krause, Six Feet Under) has a
lot of time on his hands, with mailing out resumes and obsessively watching
terrorism-related news. But when "Middle Eastern Guy" (Khaled Abol
Naga) moves into the apartment next door, his priorities shift dramatically,
and, the more he watches the actions of his new neighbor, the more convinced he
is that he's stumbled upon a terrorist plot.

Initially encouraged, then dissuaded, by FBI agent Tom Hilary (Richard
Schiff, Ray), Allen is sure that he's right, and no amount of pleading
from his increasingly frustrated wife Marla (Kari Matchett, Angel Eyes)
will stop him from taking matters into his own hands.

Allen knows he's paranoid, but does that mean he's wrong?

The Evidence

The concept of the potential terrorist next door could go at least a couple
of different ways: it could end up an intellectual treatise on the use of fear
as a political tool and its social consequences, or be a wish-fulfillment
fantasy featuring a brave American single-handedly taking down an evil terrorist
plot. Fortunately, Civic Duty takes a third path, constructing a just
complex enough situation to keep us interested, wondering if Allen could
possibly be right, without bludgeoning the audience with political
posturing.

Not that there isn't some sort of message here -- the omnipresent newscasts,
featuring almost exclusively anti-terror talk, are clearly meant as an
indictment of the media's handling of post-9/11 America, and when combined with
director Jeff Renfroe's "more is more" approach to editing tricks and
Ritalin-craving camerawork, the effect is anything but subtle. Further, the
whole concept is reflective of racial profiling policies and the idea that
everyone must do his or her part to stop terrorism before it happens. But the
arguments made on these issues are simplistic and beside the point -- more than
anything Civic Duty is trying to be a taut, intense thriller that keeps
you guessing throughout; on this score it is largely successful.

The characters of Civic Duty are surprisingly well-developed, and
despite it being a dialogue-heavy picture, exposition is handled fairly
gracefully. The even, deliberate pacing allows us to become familiar with Allen
as his strengths and weaknesses are revealed long before they'll come into play,
resulting in even his more outrageous actions coming across as fairly
consistent. Rather than simply portraying an angry man who's lost his job and is
now auditioning for the lead in a musical retelling of Falling Down,
Peter Krause gives us plenty of clues about other factors leading to his
becoming unhinged, portraying the man with a good deal of empathy and nuance. We
don't always like Allen (actually, we rarely do), but we usually understand
where he's coming from.

Schiff makes the most of his small role as Allen's FBI contact: when we
first meet him, he is interrupted by a phone call, and although we only hear is
side of the brief conversation we're given just enough to imply an entire
back-story, mostly due to Schiff's tone and body language. The man is a master
of understatement who I hope will one day get a picture of his own to lead.

Allen takes small but increasingly bold steps toward discovering -- and
revealing -- the truth about his mysterious neighbor, such that by the third act
we are surprised at how deep a hole he's managed to dig for himself. And yet,
even when he has long since departed from the station of rationality, we're
never sure whether or not he's right; hints are dropped to both support and
refute his theory, keeping us on edge all the way. Even the ending, which I
expected to be unsatisfying, is both unexpected and exactly what the story
demands, although one minor element (which I won't reveal here) strikes as
somewhat contrived and false.

What prevents Civic Duty from being a truly excellent thriller are
the incessant camera and editing tricks employed by Renfroe (One Point
O). His refusal to just let a shot be, without using double exposure, flash
frames, speed changes, and a host of other derivative devices is both jarring
and counter-productive in building suspense. Sure, we're meant to be taken
inside Allen's increasingly distorted frame of mind through the constant
bombardment of whatever Final Cut Pro could do, but Krause manages to put that
across himself quite well, thank you very much. Civic Duty's concept is
strong enough to be engaging without such an over-the-top execution.

According to the IMDb, Civic Duty was shot on 35 mm film, but I'd be
willing to bet it was actually sourced from digital video. Regardless, the DVD
has lots of digital grain, especially in the frequent dark scenes -- not
necessarily a bad thing, as the grainy image adds a sense of realism to the
proceedings. Otherwise, the picture is sharp and free from compression artifacts
or edge enhancement. Audio, while in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, isn't given a
whole lot to do, and levels are a bit lower than on most discs, but dialogue is
clear and distortion-free.

No special features, save the theatrical trailer, are included.

Closing Statement

Despite a borderline-annoying directing style, Civic Duty is a
compelling thriller with surprisingly well-developed characters and a mostly
satisfying ending. It's a good weekend rental.